Chapter Summaries

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• Hua Yunfei unleashes the perfected Nine Tribulations Phoenix Song, causing nine Divine Phoenixes to manifest with the power of heavenly tribulations and traces of small-world evolution.
• Before Jiang Ming can counterattack, his nascent Dao phenomenon activates from within his Sea of Bitterness. It absorbs the nine Divine Phoenixes and transforms them into Innate Essence, making the phenomenon clearer and more complete.
• The spectators are stunned, speculating that Jiang Ming may possess an extraordinary physique or even be a Buddhist Son descended from Mount Sumeru.
• Ji Haoyue finally enters the battle. He uses the Innate Grand Void Aura from the Void Scripture to form the Grand Void Dao Diagram, demonstrating that he had refrained from fighting earlier out of pride rather than weakness.
• Jiang Ming counters the Dao Diagram with the Vajra Fearless Lion Seal. Their techniques collide with enough force to fracture the void and split the earth, nearly destabilizing the small world.
• Ji Haoyue follows with the Heaven-Cutting Finger, forming enormous black-and-gold dragon shears capable of slicing through both matter and the soul.
• Jiang Ming’s Myriad Laws Immunity blocks the attack’s Dao-sound effect, while his Demonic Domain in the Palm captures and destroys the dragon shears. He effectively wins the exchange.

Character Developments

• Jiang Ming: His cultivation in the Foundation Establishment Stage is advancing, and his previously nascent phenomenon is becoming more active and complete. His mysterious physique and techniques continue to surprise everyone. He demonstrates powerful defensive abilities and the ability to neutralize even elite Emperor-level secret arts.
• Hua Yunfei: Reveals that he has perfected the Nine Tribulations Phoenix Song, elevating it to a level that resembles the formation of actual heavenly tribulations or small worlds. Despite this, his attack is absorbed by Jiang Ming’s phenomenon.
• Ji Haoyue: Displays his pride, confidence, and battle-hungry nature. He makes clear that he did not avoid helping Jiang Ming because he lacked strength, but because he refused to cooperate with Hua Yunfei. His mastery of the Void Scripture confirms his exceptional combat talent.
• The spectators: The elders become increasingly shocked by the destructive power of the younger generation, who are technically in the Dao Palace Secret Realm but can fight with strength approaching the Fourth-Level Secret Realm.

Significant Themes

• Hidden potential and mysterious origins: Jiang Ming’s unknown physique and incomplete phenomenon suggest that his true power has yet to be revealed.
• Pride and the pursuit of invincibility: Ji Haoyue fights not merely to win, but to cultivate an invincible heart and prove himself through battle.
• Clash of supreme inheritances: The chapter highlights the power of the Void Scripture, the Vajra Fearless Lion techniques, and Hua Yunfei’s Quasi-Emperor method.
• Growth through cultivation: Jiang Ming’s phenomenon evolves alongside his cultivation, showing that power is not static but gradually refined toward completion.
• Unexpected counters: The battle repeatedly overturns assumptions—Jiang Ming’s phenomenon absorbs the Phoenix Song, and his “palm” defeats Ji Haoyue’s “scissors”-like Heaven-Cutting Finger.

Character Interactions

• Jiang Ming and Hua Yunfei: They clash directly, with Hua Yunfei launching his strongest technique and Jiang Ming unconsciously neutralizing it through his phenomenon.
• Jiang Ming and Ji Haoyue: Their battle becomes the chapter’s main confrontation. Ji Haoyue tests Jiang Ming with the Grand Void Dao Diagram and Heaven-Cutting Finger, while Jiang Ming answers with the Vajra Fearless Lion Seal, Myriad Laws Immunity, and Demonic Domain in the Palm.
• Ji Haoyue and Hua Yunfei: Ji Haoyue refuses to cooperate with Hua Yunfei, emphasizing his independent pride and desire to fight on his own terms.
• The elders and combatants: The observers repeatedly comment on the astonishing power of the younger generation, while the Star Peak master reinforces the realm’s protective formations to prevent their battle from destroying the small world.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• During the clash between Ji Haoyue and Jiang Ming, Hua Yunfei joins the battle after becoming inspired by Jiang Ming’s overwhelming strength.
• Hua Yunfei uses the Nine Tribulations Phoenix Dance Step, sending Divine Phoenix Tribulation Light toward Jiang Ming. Jiang Ming’s Dragon-Phoenix Auspiciousness Diagram effortlessly absorbs and neutralizes the attack.
• Hua Yunfei then unleashes the Star Peak inheritance, creating a vast sea of stars and launching meteors at Jiang Ming. Jiang Ming counters with Demonic Domain in the Palm, refining the stellar attacks into nothingness.
• Hua Yunfei escalates through increasingly powerful techniques:

Seven-Star Alignment

Nine-Star Alignment, Star Spear

• Ten Directions Annihilation, using the power of thirty-six stars
• Jiang Ming repeatedly defeats these attacks with the same demonic palm technique, demonstrating the overwhelming superiority of his defensive and refining abilities.
• Ji Haoyue joins Hua Yunfei’s strongest assault by using the Void Great Emperor’s Void Sky Stele, attempting to suppress Jiang Ming alongside the star formation.
• Jiang Ming responds by activating his demonic markings, expanding the Black Demonic Wheel, and transforming into the Sixteen-Foot Demonic Body. His two palm strikes destroy Hua Yunfei’s star formation and repel the Void Sky Stele.
• Hua Yunfei spits blood and appears injured, though Jiang Ming suspects he is deliberately concealing his true strength and avoiding use of the Ruthless Emperor’s techniques.
• Jiang Ming pretends to be exhausted, coughs, and claims he can no longer fight, giving everyone an excuse to end the battle.
• The spectators recognize his technique as the legendary Sixteen-Foot Golden Body, believing Jiang Ming must possess an extraordinary Buddhist background.
• Hua Yunfei accepts the end of the contest, while Ji Haoyue openly expresses his desire to fight Jiang Ming one-on-one in the future.

Character Developments

• Jiang Ming: Reveals his calmness, immense combat power, and tactical intelligence. He defeats both opponents’ ultimate techniques but deliberately conceals his full strength and ends the battle before it becomes lethal. He continues exploiting his “Dharma Master Sanzang” identity to mislead observers.
• Hua Yunfei: Demonstrates mastery of both the Phoenix Tribulation and Star Peak inheritances. His attacks become progressively more formidable, confirming his status as Star Peak’s leading younger disciple. However, his unwillingness to reveal all his abilities suggests hidden motives and deeper power.
• Ji Haoyue: Remains direct, competitive, and honorable. Unlike Jiang Ming and Hua Yunfei, he fights straightforwardly and refuses to rely on deception. His admiration for Jiang Ming grows into a desire for a future one-on-one battle.

Significant Themes

• Overwhelming strength versus technique: Hua Yunfei’s elaborate star and phoenix techniques are repeatedly neutralized by Jiang Ming’s simple but supremely refined demonic palm.
• Deception and hidden power: Both Jiang Ming and Hua Yunfei conceal their true abilities. Jiang Ming uses feigned exhaustion, while Hua Yunfei appears to deliberately exaggerate his injuries.
• Reputation and misunderstanding: The spectators interpret Jiang Ming’s borrowed Sixteen-Foot Golden Body as proof of a mysterious Buddhist heritage, reinforcing his false identity.
• Competition among prodigies: The battle establishes all three young warriors as extraordinary talents while highlighting their very different personalities and approaches to combat.
• Avoidance of unnecessary conflict: Jiang Ming ends the battle before it turns into a life-or-death struggle, showing pragmatism beneath his seemingly arrogant displays.

Character Interactions

• Hua Yunfei reluctantly cooperates with Ji Haoyue after Jiang Ming’s strength provokes his competitive instincts.
• Jiang Ming counters both fighters simultaneously, treating their combined attacks with composure and repeatedly overpowering them.
• Ji Haoyue’s direct challenge contrasts with Hua Yunfei’s cautious, politically controlled behavior.
• Jiang Ming uses polite Buddhist phrasing to evade Ji Haoyue’s invitation to a future duel, preferring not to escalate the conflict.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• Young cultivators gather at Star Peak, while older cultivators keep their distance because of the vast differences in age and cultivation.
• Hua Yunfei receives Jiang Ming and Ji Haoyue. Although Jiang Ming currently appears demonic and sinister, the senior figures avoid provoking him because of his mysterious Buddhist identity and possible hidden protector.
• Jiang Ming worries about Xiao Nannan. He believes that once she awakens, she may no longer recognize him and could immediately escape into the Void.
• Hua Yunfei arranges a quiet bamboo cabin where Nannan can sleep safely. Jiang Ming tucks her in, and formations are placed around the cabin to prevent disturbances.
• Jiang Ming, Hua Yunfei, and Ji Haoyue move to a cliffside pavilion to share wine and music. Jiang Ming plays a heroic yet melancholic zither composition, “The Smiling, Proud Wanderer.”
• Hua Yunfei recognizes that the tune requires flute accompaniment and joins Jiang Ming with his jade flute. Their performance combines Jiang Ming’s bold, battle-worn spirit with Hua Yunfei’s gentler, hopeful temperament.
• After the performance, Jiang Ming encourages Hua Yunfei not to surrender to fate, comparing him to a carp destined to transform into a dragon if it continues forward.
• Just as the moment ends, brilliant divine light descends upon the place where Xiao Nannan is sleeping, resembling the light of ascension or spiritual summoning.

Character Developments

• Jiang Ming: Despite his frightening demonic appearance, he shows tenderness toward Xiao Nannan and deep concern about losing her. His musical talent and past experiences reveal a thoughtful, nostalgic side beneath his carefree confidence. He also acts as a mentor to Hua Yunfei, offering sincere encouragement.
• Hua Yunfei: His connection with music allows him to bond quickly with Jiang Ming. His inner conflict becomes clearer: he once wanted a simple life devoted to the zither, but was forced into the Ruthless Lineage and has since struggled against forces controlling his destiny. Jiang Ming’s words give him renewed hope.
• Ji Haoyue: He remains respectful and sociable, appreciating Jiang Ming’s music. His thoughts about his sister and family reveal a warm, protective side beneath his status as a powerful prodigy.
• Xiao Nannan: Though asleep for most of the chapter, she remains central to Jiang Ming’s worries. Her mysterious nature and possible future awakening create tension, especially with the sudden arrival of divine light.

Significant Themes

• Fate versus self-determination: Hua Yunfei’s life is shaped by the Ruthless Lineage, but Jiang Ming urges him to continue struggling toward transformation and freedom.
• Hidden identities and appearances: Jiang Ming looks like a dangerous demon, yet behaves compassionately; Hua Yunfei appears to be a carefree musician but is burdened by manipulation and destiny.
• Music as emotional and spiritual communication: The zither and flute allow the characters to express experiences and feelings that ordinary speech cannot convey. Their performance symbolizes harmony between strength and gentleness, hardship and hope.
• Family legacy and decline: The discussion of the Ji and Jiang families emphasizes how bloodlines, prodigies, and ancestors determine the rise or decline of powerful clans.
• Friendship and kindred spirits: Jiang Ming and Hua Yunfei form a meaningful connection through music, recognizing each other as people burdened by difficult pasts and uncertain futures.

Character Interactions

• Hua Yunfei gently asks about Nannan, demonstrating concern and familiarity with Jiang Ming.
• Jiang Ming and Ji Haoyue both react warmly when thinking of their younger sisters, creating a moment of shared familial affection.
• Hua Yunfei provides Nannan with a place to rest, while Jiang Ming carefully settles her into bed.
• Jiang Ming invites Hua Yunfei and Ji Haoyue to listen to his music. Hua Yunfei responds by accompanying him on the flute, transforming the performance into a deeply personal exchange.
• Jiang Ming’s final advice to Hua Yunfei reflects their growing friendship and his desire to see Hua Yunfei escape the fate imposed upon him.
• The descending divine light interrupts this peaceful bond and signals a major development concerning Xiao Nannan.

Chapter Summary: “Not for Immortality”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Little Nannan is suddenly taken away in a brilliant rosy light that forms a spatial passage. Her appearance briefly reverts to that of the Ruthless Empress as a child—ragged clothing, dirty face, horn braids, and an otherworldly, sacred aura.
• Jiang Ming deliberately pretends to have suffered a backlash while trying to divine Nannan’s origins. He remains silent, allowing others to interpret the event as Nannan being the Dao Fruit of an ancient great figure undergoing tribulation.
• Hua Yunfei explains Nannan’s mysterious origins to Ji Haoyue and the visiting elders, while Jiang Ming’s cryptic Buddhist remarks reinforce the idea that her disappearance was fated.
• Ji Haoyue leaves to enter seclusion and attempt a breakthrough into the Four Extremities realm. Hua Yunfei also prepares to cultivate in seclusion.
• Jiang Ming appears to remain meditating at the cliff for months, but this is only a deception: he leaves behind a transformed strand of hair while his true body departs with Ji Haoyue using the Seventy-Two Transformations.
• Jiang Ming later visits Clearwind Town and secretly observes his own daughter, Jiang Tingting. He learns that Tingting believes her parents are merely in seclusion, while Jiang Ming and Lingzhi are actually believed to have been killed by a Lightning Bird.
• The Li Family knows the truth or suspects involvement in Jiang Ming and Lingzhi’s deaths, but they dare not harm Jiang Tang or Tingting. They fear exposure by the Smoke Glow Grotto-Heaven and possible punishment for killing fellow disciples.
• Jiang Ming considers altering Tingting’s destined connection with Ye Fan but ultimately chooses not to interfere. He remembers that Ye Fan will later protect Tingting and give her valuable treasures.
• To protect his daughter and father without disrupting fate, Jiang Ming transforms into Bai Ze and spends six months refining two jade talismans containing his blessing and sword intent. These talismans can activate in mortal danger and kill Dao Palace cultivators.
• By the end of the chapter, Jiang Ming has reached the Late Foundation Establishment stage, deliberately progressing slowly to thoroughly temper each cultivation realm.

Character Developments

• Jiang Ming: Reveals his resourcefulness and willingness to deceive others to protect secrets. His farewell to Nannan and observation of Tingting expose his deep grief and guilt as a father. Though he considers intervening directly, he restrains himself and protects his family indirectly through the talismans.
• Little Nannan: Her mysterious identity becomes even more apparent as she is taken away in an ascension-like phenomenon and briefly appears in the form associated with the Ruthless Empress’s childhood.
• Ji Haoyue: Becomes more determined to advance his cultivation, entering seclusion to break through to the Four Extremities realm.
• Hua Yunfei: Prepares for his own breakthrough and helps explain Nannan’s disappearance to the elders.
• Jiang Tingting: Though only three years old, she is portrayed as unusually obedient and perceptive. Her innocence and belief that her parents will return intensify the emotional impact of Jiang Ming’s situation.
• Jiang Tang: Cares for Tingting while hiding his grief. He suspects that Jiang Ming and Lingzhi are dead but protects Tingting from the truth.
• The Li Family: Are shown as fearful and trapped by their possible crimes. They hesitate to act against Jiang Ming’s family because exposure could bring destruction upon them.
• Ye Fan: Does not appear directly, but his future relationship with Tingting influences Jiang Ming’s decision not to alter fate.

Significant Themes

• Fate versus intervention: Jiang Ming struggles with whether to change Tingting’s destined future but ultimately accepts that some events must unfold as fated.
• Parental love and regret: His grief over Nannan’s departure and his inability to openly acknowledge Tingting demonstrate the emotional cost of his cultivation path.
• Hidden identities and deception: Jiang Ming repeatedly conceals the truth, using silence, transformations, and false appearances to protect himself and others.
• Karma and destined relationships: The chapter emphasizes that encounters and separations arise from causes and effects, especially through Nannan’s departure and Tingting’s future bond with Ye Fan.
• Protection through sacrifice: Jiang Ming cannot remain with his family, so he sacrifices emotional closeness and instead leaves behind protective talismans.
• The burden of immortality: The title reflects Jiang Ming’s realization that cultivation and immortality are not his only motivations; his actions are ultimately driven by love, responsibility, and concern for his family.

Important Character Interactions

• Jiang Ming, Hua Yunfei, and Ji Haoyue: They discuss Nannan’s strange disappearance, with Jiang Ming withholding the truth and the others trying to interpret the phenomenon.
• Jiang Ming and the visiting elders: His silence allows Ji Hong and others to construct a plausible explanation involving divine backlash and an ancient Dao Fruit.
• Jiang Ming and Tingting: They do not speak directly, but Jiang Ming watches her from afar, torn between embracing her and preserving the course of fate.
• Jiang Tang and Tingting: Jiang Tang comforts Tingting by telling her that her parents are in seclusion, while privately mourning their likely deaths.
• Jiang Ming and the Li Family: Their conflict remains indirect. The Li Family fears Jiang Ming’s return and the consequences of its suspected role in his family’s tragedy.
• Jiang Ming and Ye Fan’s future: Although they do not meet, Jiang Ming weighs Ye Fan’s future kindness toward Tingting when deciding not to interfere with her destiny.

Chapter Summary: “Madman”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Jiang Ming visits Green Bamboo Slope in Smoke Glow Ridge to mourn Lingzhi, his deceased first love, confidante, and the mother of his daughter. He brings her favorite Purple Star Orchid and suppresses his demonic aura, wanting to appear as the refined man she once knew.
• He remains there for three days and three nights, crying so loudly that passing cultivators hear ghostly wails and feel the earth tremble. His grief causes the surrounding rocks, grass, and trees to explode.
• Jiang Ming’s memories and emotional burdens from his current life, previous life, and even the life before that surface simultaneously. He mourns Lingzhi, his unknown fox-spirit wife Nü Yuan, his daughter Wan’er, and his parents from his life on Earth.
• His two deeply rooted “obsessions”—the emotional remnants of his other lives—try to calm him, reminding him that the dead cannot return and that the living must continue forward.
• During the mourning, a white-haired, corpse-like old man appears and begins crying just as intensely. Jiang Ming recognizes him as Madman. The two share their sorrow without needing to know each other beforehand.
• Near dawn, Madman recovers enough to suggest visiting an old friend. Jiang Ming decides to accompany him, partly out of sympathy and partly from curiosity.
• Madman travels at astonishing speed across the wilderness. Jiang Ming transforms into a Spirit-Bright Divine Ape and uses his Fiery Golden Eyes to study Madman’s movements.
• By observing Madman’s walking technique, Jiang Ming begins comprehending Nine Secrets: Xing, a profound movement art connected to the rhythm of the Dao and the passage of time. He realizes this may also help him better master the innate treasure technique of the Ferocious Beast Gu.
• Jiang Ming follows Madman for one hundred thousand li across the Great Wilderness until they reach the outskirts of the Desolate Forbidden Land.
• Jiang Ming refuses to enter the forbidden land. He fears provoking the first-generation Great Accomplished Sacred Body within it and is also wary of the Heavenly Jade Saintess, a Desolate Slave whom he previously offended.
• He jokingly worries that, if Madman once pursued the Heavenly Jade Saintess, he may have “stolen” Madman’s woman and become the target of revenge. To Jiang Ming, the forbidden land represents both certain death and disastrous romance.

Character Developments

• Jiang Ming: His usually powerful and composed image gives way to overwhelming grief. The chapter reveals the emotional consequences of his fragmented memories and multiple lives. Though he calls himself a lunatic with split personalities, he gradually accepts that all these experiences belong to him. His mourning also brings him into emotional kinship with Madman.
• Madman: Introduced as a strange, ancient-looking, grief-stricken old man, Madman appears eccentric but deeply sorrowful. After crying alongside Jiang Ming, he regains his composure and leads him toward the Desolate Forbidden Land. His casual walking style reveals extraordinary mastery of the Nine Secrets: Xing.
• Lingzhi, Nü Yuan, and Wan’er: Though absent, their deaths and suffering dominate Jiang Ming’s thoughts. Lingzhi is established as his deepest emotional attachment, while Wan’er’s lonely upbringing and Nü Yuan’s unknown relationship with him intensify his sense of regret.
• Jiang Ming’s other selves/obsessions: These remnants are not truly separate personalities but powerful emotional imprints from earlier lives. They briefly comfort his main consciousness, showing that the different versions of Jiang Ming are beginning to cooperate rather than simply conflict.

Significant Themes

• Grief and unresolved loss: Jiang Ming’s exaggerated, almost comedic crying reflects genuine, accumulated sorrow from several lifetimes.
• Identity across reincarnations: The chapter explores whether memories and emotional burdens from previous lives should be treated as separate personalities or as parts of one continuous self.
• The dead versus the living: Jiang Ming struggles to move forward, while the repeated reminder that “the dead cannot return” emphasizes the need to continue living despite loss.
• Kindred spirits: Jiang Ming and Madman recognize one another through shared suffering, suggesting that profound grief can create an immediate bond between strangers.
• Pain leading to growth: Jiang Ming’s mourning unexpectedly allows him to encounter Madman and begin learning the Nine Secrets: Xing.
• Humor amid tragedy: Jiang Ming’s melodramatic complaints, self-mockery, and fears about romantic entanglements relieve the chapter’s heavy sorrow without diminishing its emotional core.

Important Character Interactions

• Jiang Ming mourns Lingzhi and mentally confronts his failures toward his family across multiple lifetimes.
• His internal selves attempt to comfort him and urge him to stop dwelling on the dead.
• Jiang Ming and Madman cry together, becoming “fallen souls at the ends of the earth” despite having only just met.
• Jiang Ming follows Madman through the wilderness, silently learning from his footwork.
• At the Desolate Forbidden Land, Jiang Ming refuses Madman’s implied invitation to continue, fearing both powerful enemies and the possibility of conflict over the Heavenly Jade Saintess.

Chapter Summary: “Picking Peaches”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Jiang Ming, disguised as the Spirit Stone Ape, senses that the region surrounding the Desolate Forbidden Land contains numerous heavenly treasures. He decides to gather them for future cultivation of the Shrouding Method, which he believes is necessary to unlock the full potential of his current body.
• He continues following Madman, intending to fulfill his promise to help him cry once. Using the incomplete Nine Secrets: Xing and his Spirit-Bright Divine Ape abilities, Jiang Ming quickly masters Madman’s movement technique.
• The pair enter the Primordial Mountain Range, an extremely dangerous region filled with powerful Archaic Desolate Species and demonic birds. The area is far older and more perilous than the Primordial Ruins because of its connection to the ancient Desolate Forbidden Land.
• Madman becomes increasingly sorrowful and detached as he approaches the forbidden land, staring blankly toward its depths.
• Jiang Ming secretly harvests spirit medicines by transforming into various creatures and bypassing their guardians:
  • A thousand-year-old Golden Ginseng guarded by Five-Colored Deer.
  • A two-thousand-year-old Xun Wind Grass taken from a Golden-Winged Roc’s nest.
  • A twenty-two-hundred-year-old Silver Pan Peach, stolen from a black Demon Ape.
• His thefts cause chaos among the local beasts. The Five-Colored Deer mourn the loss of their medicine, while the Golden-Winged Roc and Demon Ape mistakenly blame one another after Jiang Ming leaves misleading traces.
• The chapter ends with an explanation of the difference between the Primordial Royal Clans and the later Demon Race, emphasizing that even creatures with humble bloodlines can achieve greatness through cultivation.

Character Developments

• Jiang Ming: Demonstrates increasing mastery of his Spirit-Bright Divine Ape abilities, particularly transformation, spatial techniques, rapid learning, and the ability to imitate other creatures. He becomes more opportunistic and resourceful, treating the dangerous mountain range as a source of valuable treasures.
• Madman: Grows more emotionally repressed and grief-stricken as he nears the Desolate Forbidden Land. His distracted state contrasts sharply with Jiang Ming’s alertness and calculated actions.
• The local beasts: The Five-Colored Deer, Golden-Winged Roc, and Demon Ape are portrayed as powerful but easily manipulated victims of Jiang Ming’s clever thefts and disguises.

Significant Themes

• Ingenuity versus brute strength: Jiang Ming avoids direct confrontation by using transformations, deception, and spatial abilities rather than fighting the powerful guardians.
• Cultivation and potential: The chapter stresses that physical form, bloodline, and cultivation method determine future potential. The Shrouding Method offers even powerful beasts a route toward greater evolution.
• Origins do not determine destiny: The history of the Demon Race, particularly Demon Emperor Xue Yueqing’s rise from an ordinary Snow Rabbit, illustrates that humble beginnings do not prevent someone from reaching supreme power.
• Ancient history and inheritance: The Desolate Forbidden Land and surrounding mountain range are tied to major figures and events from the Desolate Ancient Era, highlighting the lasting influence of ancient legacies.
• Grief and emotional contrast: Madman’s sorrowful approach to the forbidden land is juxtaposed with Jiang Ming’s humorous and almost mischievous treasure hunting.

Character Interactions

• Jiang Ming follows Madman while secretly learning from and imitating his movement technique.
• Madman remains largely unaware of Jiang Ming’s treasure gathering because of his grief and distraction.
• Jiang Ming indirectly pits the Golden-Winged Roc and black Demon Ape against each other by leaving evidence that makes each believe the other stole its treasure.
• The beasts’ reactions reveal the value of the stolen medicines and provide comic relief amid the chapter’s darker atmosphere.

Chapter Summary

• Battle in the Primordial Forest: A Long-Armed Demon Ape, a powerful Primordial Species, attacks the Golden-Winged Roc Bird. Their collision devastates the surrounding mountains and forest, producing a clash of demonic and divine winds. The destruction is severe but temporary, as the forest is expected to recover.
• Jiang Ming’s grief and inner demons: Jiang Ming returns to the Madman and assumes his original appearance. While looking toward the nine Sacred Mountains of the Desolate Forbidden Land, he remembers his former life and the deaths of more than a hundred Shushan disciples whom he killed inside the Demon-Locking Tower. Overcome by guilt, he enters a demonic state, howling, crying, and condemning himself as disloyal, unfilial, unjust, and worthless.
• The Madman’s shared sorrow: The Madman joins Jiang Ming in mourning, repeating the despairing question of whether everything can begin again. Their grief is so powerful that Dao Patterns are needed to prevent the mountain from collapsing. Local Primordial Species avoid them because the Madman’s previous emotional outbursts have killed powerful beasts.
• The Madman assesses Jiang Ming: After hours of crying, the Madman tries to comfort Jiang Ming and recognizes that the young man’s apparent youth hides immense suffering. Jiang Ming possesses the rare Sword Heart Illumination talent, but his mind is imprisoned by a powerful inner demon. The Madman fears that killing him might release the demonic soul within him and unleash a catastrophe.
• Appearance of the Heavenly Jade Saintess: A beautiful woman in white emerges from the center of the nine Sacred Mountains and stands at the edge of a Sacred Mountain. Jiang Ming immediately mistakes her for Nü Yuan, his beloved confidante from his previous life, because of their nearly identical appearance and temperament. He nearly rushes into the Desolate Forbidden Land to reach her.
• Jiang Ming struggles with reality: Both the Madman and Jiang Ming’s present-life consciousness stop him, warning that the Forbidden Land destroys anyone who enters. The Madman identifies the woman as the Heavenly Jade Saintess, formerly the sole Saintess of the Heavenly Jade Holy Land. Her appearance also triggers the Madman’s own sorrowful memories.
• Rejection and escape: Jiang Ming’s primary consciousness battles against his emotional attachment and ultimately convinces himself that the Saintess’s beauty is an illusion designed to lure people into the Forbidden Land, where their life force will be devoured. He reminds himself that she is not truly Nü Yuan and that he can never return to his former world to reunite with Nü Yuan or Wan’er. Refusing to become involved despite the apparent fate connecting them, Jiang Ming decides that he and the Heavenly Jade Saintess are destined to meet but not to remain together.

Character Developments and Interactions

• Jiang Ming reveals the depth of his guilt, trauma, and unresolved attachment to his former life. His demonic state exposes how close he is to losing control, but his self-awareness eventually helps him resist the Saintess’s pull.
• The Madman shifts from grieving companion to protector and voice of reason. His own connection to the Heavenly Jade Saintess makes the encounter emotionally significant for him as well.
• Jiang Ming and the Madman bond through shared grief, though the Madman is also confused and suspicious about Jiang Ming’s connection to Nü Yuan.
• The Heavenly Jade Saintess is introduced as a mysterious, almost unreal figure whose resemblance to Nü Yuan may be connected to the dangers of the Desolate Forbidden Land.

Significant Themes

• The burden of guilt and survivor’s remorse
• The conflict between past-life memories and present identity
• Grief, madness, and the desire to reverse death
• Illusion versus reality
• Fate and relationships that bring people together without allowing them to remain together
• The danger of being seduced by beauty, memory, and emotional attachment

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• The Heavenly Jade Saintess appears and uses the Celestial Immortal Steps, an extraordinarily fast and graceful movement technique. Madman recognizes her as the former foremost beauty of the Eastern Wasteland.
• Her history is revealed: the Heavenly Jade Holy Land once attempted to enter the Immortal Domain through the Desolate Forbidden Land. The entire sect was destroyed, its Emperor Armament shattered by the Ruthless Empress, and the Saintess was transformed into a Desolate Slave.
• Madman recalls that he once narrowly lost to the Saintess because his fragment of the Nine Secrets—Xing—was incomplete. He survived the destruction of the Heavenly Jade Holy Land through the inheritance of the Six Paths of Reincarnation Fist.
• When Jiang Ming sees the Saintess pursuing them, he panics and forcibly takes control of his body, fleeing more than ten li with Madman’s movement technique. Madman also leaves, unwilling to approach the Desolate Forbidden Land.
• After escaping, Jiang Ming’s demonic aura disappears. However, he begins arguing aloud with the different personalities within him, eventually declaring that he alone will control his body and destiny.
• Madman observes Jiang Ming’s madness, then departs in a confused, mournful state, alternating between laughter and tears while reciting sorrowful poetry.
• Jiang Ming decides to cultivate in seclusion and pursue the path to becoming a Great Emperor, intending to restore the honor of the Heavenly Tyrant Body Lineage.
• He plans to infiltrate and reform the corrupt Tyrant Body Lineage, possibly sacrificing its old members as cultivation resources and removing the three ancient Tyrant Bodies who have damaged the lineage’s reputation.
• The chapter ends with the Heavenly Jade Saintess, standing at the edge of the Desolate Forbidden Land, suddenly stepping beyond its boundary.

Character Developments

• Jiang Ming becomes more assertive and determined to suppress his internal personalities and avoid demonic cultivation. He insists that his body and future belong to him alone.
• He reveals both ambition and ruthlessness, planning to become an unprecedented Great Emperor of the Heavenly Tyrant Body Lineage and destroy its corrupt old guard.
• Madman is shown to have a deep history with the Heavenly Jade Saintess and the destruction of her holy land. His unstable laughter and sorrow suggest lingering trauma, grief, or madness.
• The Heavenly Jade Saintess is portrayed as both an ancient peerless cultivator and a tragic figure, now reduced to a soulless Desolate Slave. Her final movement beyond the Forbidden Land suggests that she may be acting independently or that a major threat is emerging.
• The Ruthless Empress is further established as overwhelmingly powerful, having destroyed the Heavenly Jade Holy Land’s ancient Emperor Armament and used its fragments to forge her mask.

Significant Themes

• Madness and identity: Jiang Ming’s multiple personalities and Madman’s erratic behavior blur the line between sanity and insanity.
• Control over destiny: Jiang Ming refuses to let his internal selves, demonic tendencies, or inherited fate determine his actions.
• Destruction and rebirth: Jiang Ming believes the corrupt Tyrant Body Lineage must be destroyed so that a new, honorable lineage can emerge.
• Legacy and reputation: The chapter contrasts the benevolent Desolate Ancient Sacred Body with the selfish Heavenly Tyrant Body Lineage, emphasizing how later generations inherit both glory and disgrace.
• Ambition and defiance: Jiang Ming seeks to break historical precedent by becoming a Great Emperor despite the lack of a successful Heavenly Tyrant Body Emperor.
• Tragedy beneath beauty: The Heavenly Jade Saintess’s elegance contrasts sharply with her loss of agency as a Desolate Slave.

Important Character Interactions

• Madman and the Heavenly Jade Saintess: Their past duel and shared history reveal mutual recognition and unresolved emotional weight.
• Jiang Ming and his internal personalities: He confronts the voices representing his past and present selves, rejecting their fatalism and demanding obedience.
• Jiang Ming and Madman: Madman sees Jiang Ming’s instability firsthand, while Jiang Ming watches Madman depart in a state of grief and madness.
• The Heavenly Jade Saintess and Jiang Ming: Her pursuit forces Jiang Ming to flee, while her final step out of the Forbidden Land creates a looming threat or mystery for future chapters.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• The chapter explains the nature of Desolate Slaves, beings transformed by the Desolate Lord and connected in some cases to the Ruthless Empress. They retain limited intelligence, possess near-eternal life, and normally remain sealed within the Desolate Abyss.
• The Heavenly Jade Saintess, now a Desolate Slave, unexpectedly leaves the Desolate Forbidden Land and pursues Jiang Ming. However, she loses track of him after he enters seclusion and eventually returns to the forbidden land.
• Jiang Ming remains unaware of her pursuit but becomes increasingly alarmed by his dangerous connections to the Desolate Forbidden Land. The system has bound his Marriage Red Thread to the Heavenly Jade Saintess and has also entangled him with Xiao Nannan, indirectly linking him to the sleeping Ruthless Empress.
• Fearing the Ruthless Empress, the First-Generation Desolate Ancient Sacred Body, and the power of Huang, Jiang Ming flees fifty thousand li and returns to the Primordial Ruins, which he considers much safer.
• He enters Thunderfall Valley, a dangerous region filled with magnetite and lightning, and uses his Seventy-Two Transformations to locate a powerful Magnetite Stone.
• Jiang Ming feeds the Magnetite Stone to his Life-Bound Sword. The sword absorbs its magnetic Dao laws, gains black Dao Patterns, and advances to the level of a High-Grade Dharma Treasure.
• During two months of secluded cultivation, Jiang Ming consumes several powerful spiritual medicines, including Golden Ginseng, Xun Wind Grass, and Silver Pan Peaches. Their energy strengthens his body, True Essence, Dao Platform, and four great phenomena.
• His Twelfth-Grade Lotus Dao Platform completes its final three petals, allowing him to break through to Foundation Establishment Stage Completion. This takes him only one year, compared with five years in his previous life.
• Remembering that Ye Fan will soon arrive at the Desolate Forbidden Land aboard the Nine Dragons Pulling a Coffin, Jiang Ming recalls the Lihuo Divine Furnace, a powerful weapon once used by Emperor Hengyu. He decides to seize it and test whether it can suppress his Fate Pattern.

Character Development

• Jiang Ming becomes more cautious and fearful of the consequences of his unusual karmic connections. Although powerful, he recognizes that the Desolate Forbidden Land contains beings far beyond his current level.
• His resourcefulness is emphasized through his use of transformations, strategic retreat, treasure refinement, and medicinal cultivation.
• Jiang Ming’s cultivation progresses rapidly, and his confidence grows after successfully upgrading his Life-Bound Sword and reaching Foundation Establishment completion.
• His ambition also expands: rather than merely surviving, he now plans to interfere with Ye Fan’s destiny and seize a major opportunity for himself.
• The Heavenly Jade Saintess is portrayed as an eerie, almost puppet-like Desolate Slave. Her pursuit of Jiang Ming suggests that the Marriage Red Thread may be influencing her behavior despite her vacant, restrained state.
• Madman is shown to be dependable when lucid. His long experience with the Desolate Forbidden Land makes him cautious and capable of preventing reckless actions.

Significant Themes

• Karma and dangerous fate: Jiang Ming’s involuntary ties to the Heavenly Jade Saintess, Xiao Nannan, and the Ruthless Empress create potentially catastrophic consequences.
• Power versus caution: Jiang Ming understands that personal strength is not enough against ancient, overwhelming entities, so survival depends on knowing when to retreat.
• Cultivation through resources: Rare materials and spiritual medicines are essential to Jiang Ming’s progress, allowing him to rapidly strengthen his weapon, body, Dao Platform, and phenomena.
• Interference with destiny: Jiang Ming begins actively considering how to take advantage of events surrounding Ye Fan, signaling a shift from passive survival to manipulating major future opportunities.
• Transformation and refinement: The chapter repeatedly mirrors physical and spiritual transformation—Desolate Slaves are refined into puppets, the Life-Bound Sword evolves through Magnetism, and Jiang Ming refines himself through medicine and cultivation.

Character Interactions

• The Heavenly Jade Saintess pursues Jiang Ming but ultimately returns to the Desolate Forbidden Land after failing to locate him.
• Jiang Ming reflects on his relationship with Madman, recognizing that Madman is rational and reliable despite his usual madness.
• Jiang Ming’s thoughts connect him indirectly to Xiao Nannan and the Ruthless Empress through the system’s bindings.
• He anticipates Ye Fan’s arrival and plans to intercept or seize the Lihuo Divine Furnace from him, setting up a future conflict over a major treasure.

Chapter Summary: Ye Fan Arrives

Key Plot Points and Events

• The Nine Dragons Pulling a Coffin arrives at the Big Dipper Burial Emperor Star, landing outside the Desolate Forbidden Land rather than on its Five-Colored Altar. Jiang Ming suspects the Ruthless Empress may be observing Ye Fan’s arrival.
• Ye Fan officially reaches the Emperor-Burial Star, marking the beginning of his major cultivation journey and the canonical events surrounding him.
• Jiang Ming considers traveling to obtain the Lihuo Divine Furnace, but decides to remain in the Southern Region because he needs to:
  • Exchange the Yaoguang Scripture with Ye Fan for the Sea of Bitterness Chapter of the Dao Scripture.
  • Follow Ye Fan and Ji Ziyue to obtain some of the Root of the Mother Qi of All Things.
• Jiang Ming finishes absorbing the magnetic power beneath Thunderfall Valley, weakening its future lightning activity.
• He breaks through to Foundation Establishment perfection, enduring a tribulation of ninety-nine heavenly lightning bolts. He absorbs much of the lightning to strengthen his body, cultivation, Divine Form, and Life-Bound Sword.
• The Life-Bound Sword is tempered by the lightning and becomes stronger after gaining the ability to absorb both magnetism and thunder.
• Duan De, the grave-robbing fat Daoist, tracks the altered feng shui and discovers Jiang Ming’s presence. He mistakenly identifies Jiang Ming’s pangolin transformation as his true body.
• Jiang Ming attacks Duan De with lightning, accusing him of robbing graves throughout the Eastern Wasteland’s demon territory. Duan De claims to have allied with the local Demon Race, but Jiang Ming refuses to believe him.
• At the end of the chapter, Jiang Ming notices that his Divine Forms have unexpectedly increased from nine to twelve, with three additional blurry figures appearing mysteriously.

Character Developments

• Jiang Ming becomes increasingly confident and reckless after reaching Foundation Establishment perfection. He is no longer as cautious around powerful figures and is willing to provoke Duan De directly.
• His cultivation advances significantly:
  • He completes the Foundation Establishment realm.
  • His body and Life-Bound Sword gain greater resistance to and control over lightning.
  • He can now summon and use part of his Divine Form’s power in combat.
• Jiang Ming’s relationship with the Ruthless Empress becomes more complicated. He acknowledges that he is deeply entangled with her karma and jokingly rationalizes taking some of her treasures.
• Duan De remains persistent in his search for the Demon Emperor’s Tomb. His encounter with Jiang Ming shows his usual bluster, greed, and uncanny ability to survive attacks.
• Ye Fan does not yet interact directly with Jiang Ming, but his arrival initiates the major events Jiang Ming has been anticipating.

Significant Themes

• Fate and interference with destiny: Jiang Ming knows the original sequence of events and deliberately positions himself to benefit from Ye Fan’s arrival while attempting to alter the future.
• Karmic entanglement: Jiang Ming’s involvement with the Ruthless Empress and Ye Fan shows how his actions increasingly tie him to powerful figures and major cosmic events.
• Cultivation through tribulation: Lightning is treated not only as punishment but also as a resource. Jiang Ming turns the Heavenly Tribulation into a means of strengthening his body, weapon, and Divine Forms.
• Recklessness and escalating power: Jiang Ming’s growing strength makes him more willing to confront dangerous opponents, though his behavior also risks attracting greater enemies.
• Greed and opportunism: Jiang Ming openly plans to profit from Ye Fan’s adventures, the Mother Qi of All Things, the Lihuo Divine Furnace, and even his connection with the Ruthless Empress.

Character Interactions

• Jiang Ming and Ye Fan: They have not met yet, but Jiang Ming is planning an exchange of cultivation scriptures and intends to accompany Ye Fan and Ji Ziyue.
• Jiang Ming and the Ruthless Empress: Their interaction remains indirect, but Jiang Ming believes she may be watching him and recognizes that their karmic connection is becoming unavoidable.
• Jiang Ming and Duan De: Their hostile rivalry resumes after a previous unpleasant encounter. Jiang Ming attacks Duan De with lightning, while Duan De responds with insults and claims of protection from the Demon Race.
• Jiang Ming and the Lightning Birds: Jiang Ming drains the magnetic energy from their territory but spares them, considering this an act of generosity.

Chapter Summary: “Farewell, Yan Ruyu”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Duan De, the notorious grave robber, is confronted in the Primordial Ruins after spending nearly a year looting the tombs of Demon Race ancestors. The winged young girl and Yan Ruyu accuse him of his crimes.
• Yan Ruyu arrives at Thunderfall Valley after sensing unusual thunderous phenomena. She suspects the disturbance is connected to the Azure Emperor’s Tomb and the emergence of the Azure Emperor’s Armament.
• Jiang Ming reveals that he intends to claim half of the Azure Emperor Armament, while Yan Ruyu should receive the other half. He considers the Lihuo Divine Furnace unreliable because it is only a Quasi-Emperor Armament and lacks the power of a true Extreme Dao Emperor Armament.
• When additional demons approach, Duan De abandons Jiang Ming, leaving behind a straw substitute that burns to ashes. His escape demonstrates his abundance of strange defensive treasures and escape techniques.
• Jiang Ming suppresses the arriving people by transforming into Bai Ze and releasing a blessing light over them. He then bids Yan Ruyu farewell and departs using an elegant, deliberately dramatic movement technique.

Character Developments

• Duan De: Remains crafty, shameless, and nearly impossible to capture. His instinct is to flee when danger increases, relying on numerous life-saving artifacts and substitutes.
• Yan Ruyu: Appears as a dignified and powerful descendant of the Demon Emperor. Though initially focused on Duan De, she becomes intrigued by Jiang Ming’s appearance, bearing, poetic speech, and mysterious aura. Her connection to the Azure Emperor’s inheritance places her at the center of the coming struggle.
• Jiang Ming: Displays confidence, strategic awareness, and generosity by arranging for Yan Ruyu to share the Azure Emperor Armament. He presents himself as a melancholy, doomed wanderer, using poetic language and an aloof farewell to leave a strong impression on Yan Ruyu.
• The wider era: The chapter emphasizes the extraordinary nature of the current age, in which descendants and inheritors of ancient emperors have awakened to compete for the sole opportunity to become emperor.

Significant Themes

• The coming Golden Age: The era is portrayed as the final and most brilliant flowering of the Dao, attracting ancient inheritances and awakening dormant prodigies.
• Competition and destiny: Only one person may become emperor under the current cosmic rules, creating a harsh struggle reminiscent of raising the strongest survivor among poisonous insects.
• Inheritance across time: The Azure Emperor and other ancient figures have prepared successors to continue their legacies in the present age.
• Treasure and power: The distinction between Quasi-Emperor Armaments and true Extreme Dao Emperor Armaments highlights the importance of weapons capable of bearing an emperor’s complete Dao.
• Romantic and literary allure: Jiang Ming’s poetry, melancholy demeanor, and mysterious departure immediately attract Yan Ruyu’s attention, establishing a subtle emotional and possibly romantic connection.

Character Interactions

• The winged girl and Yan Ruyu openly condemn Duan De for robbing Demon Race tombs, while Duan De avoids confrontation by escaping.
• Jiang Ming and Yan Ruyu meet during the disturbance at Thunderfall Valley. He admits to causing the tribulation, speaks to her in poetic and self-deprecating terms, and warns that he brings misfortune.
• Yan Ruyu quietly studies Jiang Ming, finding his calm strength, sorrowful eyes, refined speech, and transcendent bearing deeply compelling.
• Before leaving, Jiang Ming gives Yan Ruyu and the others a blessing through his Bai Ze transformation, creating a final impression of benevolence beneath his mysterious and theatrical exterior.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• After Jiang Ming’s departure, Yan Ruyu and her companions are protected by the Light of Blessing, which purifies sinister auras and calamity.
• The Azure Bird Descendant wonders whether Jiang Ming is a Bai Ze or another powerful Primordial Antiquity Species. Yan Ruyu reveals that he is actually the mysterious Long-Armed Demon Ape, possessing:
  • Seventy-Two Transformations
  • Fiery Golden Eyes
  • Extraordinary divine abilities
• Yan Ruyu realizes that Jiang Ming’s transformations are genuine and suspects his abilities are connected to the legendary divine ape lineages.
• The Azure Bird girl begins to awaken memories and inheritances from her bloodline, possibly giving her a chance to evolve into a true pure-blooded Azure Bird.
• Yan Ruyu returns to the secret-realm world and announces that she will enter seclusion to break through to the Four Extremes Secret Realm. She intends to confront Jiang Ming personally after emerging.
• Jiang Ming reflects on Yan Ruyu and his future plans. He believes he must win her over through strength, talent, appearance, and sincerity, while also viewing their marriage-red-thread connection as evidence that they are destined to meet.
• He decides that he needs a powerful Emperor Armament to suppress Ye Fan’s Fate Pattern and considers taking advantage of Duan De’s opportunities, particularly the Ruthless Empress’s Heaven-Swallowing Demon Canopy.
• Jiang Ming plans to strengthen his Chinese Paladin cultivation first, then later combine it with the Shrouding the Heavens cultivation method after Ye Fan arrives.
• He concludes that his physique and past-life memories are sufficient for major breakthroughs; his main requirement is an abundant supply of cultivation resources.
• Transforming into a Six-Eared Macaque, Jiang Ming uses his enhanced hearing to search across thousands of li for Duan De.
• Meanwhile, Duan De discovers a tomb containing what he believes to be a powerful Half-Step Great Ability-level demon. He celebrates quietly, unaware that Jiang Ming is tracking him.

Character Developments

• Yan Ruyu: Gains a clearer understanding of Jiang Ming’s identity and abilities. Her curiosity and unexplained attraction toward him deepen, likely because of the Marriage Red Thread. She also commits to secluded cultivation and aims to reach the Four Extremes Secret Realm.
• Azure Bird Descendant: Begins awakening deeper bloodline memories. Her desire to transform her golden wings into blue ones symbolizes her hope of achieving pure-blooded status and a stronger future.
• Jiang Ming: Becomes more calculating and ambitious. He plans to acquire powerful treasures, manipulate major opportunities, protect Ye Fan from karmic consequences, and cultivate two complementary systems.
• Duan De: Remains a greedy and opportunistic tomb raider. He is excited about his latest discovery and is positioned to become Jiang Ming’s next target.
• Ye Fan: Does not appear directly, but Jiang Ming’s future plans increasingly revolve around protecting or controlling his destiny.
• The Ruthless Empress: Though absent, her influence grows through the Heaven-Swallowing Demon Canopy and Jiang Ming’s expected karmic entanglement with her.

Significant Themes

• Bloodline inheritance and ancestral awakening: The Azure Bird’s potential evolution shows how ancient divine bloodlines can preserve power and memories across generations.
• Fate and karmic entanglement: The Marriage Red Thread and Jiang Ming’s concern over Ye Fan’s Fate Pattern emphasize that relationships and destiny are difficult to escape.
• Power accumulation: Jiang Ming seeks weapons, resources, cultivation methods, and opportunities to prepare for future conflicts.
• Transformation and hidden identity: Jiang Ming’s ability to assume multiple forms allows him to conceal himself, gain advantages, and blur the line between different legendary bloodlines.
• Pragmatism in cultivation: Jiang Ming prioritizes usable resources and strategic advantages over conventional aids such as breakthrough pills.
• Greed and opportunity: Both Jiang Ming and Duan De seek to profit from ancient tombs, treasures, and hidden inheritances, setting up their inevitable confrontation.

Character Interactions

• Yan Ruyu explains Jiang Ming’s identity and abilities to the Azure Bird Descendant, prompting the latter’s bloodline awakening.
• Yan Ruyu orders the demons to return with her and announces her intention to cultivate in seclusion before dealing with Jiang Ming.
• Jiang Ming mentally considers his future relationship with Yan Ruyu and his potential cooperation—or competition—with Duan De.
• Jiang Ming prepares to approach Duan De under the guise of friendship and possible trade, while secretly intending to exploit or rob him.
• The chapter ends with Duan De discovering a valuable tomb and Jiang Ming locating him from a distance, foreshadowing a confrontation.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• Duan De breaks into the tomb of a Half-Step Great Ability, which is protected by powerful killing formations. Despite being repeatedly attacked, he enthusiastically continues grave-robbing, believing that greater danger means greater treasure.
• Using his feng shui expertise, Duan De navigates the tomb’s formations and obtains a purple-glowing treasure bead. However, he is blasted into the air and briefly impaled by a short spear, creating a comic spectacle that Jiang Ming records.
• Jiang Ming decides not to interfere with Duan De and instead explores the Primordial Ruins in the form of a Six-Eared Macaque. The ruins were once the Eastern Wasteland Demon Court, later destroyed by the four imperial dynasties after the Azure Emperor disappeared.
• Jiang Ming conceives a new method of cultivation and treasure-making: using the Wine Immortal Spell and a Purple Copper Gourd to brew medicinal wine from demons, monsters, ghosts, exotic beasts, spirit herbs, and other heavenly materials.
• Over the next two months, he refines the gourd, hunts creatures that attack him, gathers rare materials, and extracts Source Stones from underground.
• Jiang Ming arrives at the Ji River and adopts the identity of the “Water Ape Great Saint.” He meets a huge dragon-headed fish monster, whom he teasingly calls “Fathead Fish,” while the creature insists on being called the “Dragon-Head Great Saint.”
• Jiang Ming had previously defeated and spared the fish monster, then taught it Dao principles. In only half a month, the monster’s appearance and cultivation improved dramatically, transforming it into a powerful Fish-Dragon-like creature.
• The fish monster has five sworn brothers. Jiang Ming plans to join them in forming the “Seven Saints of the Ji River.”
• Jiang Ming’s motives are not entirely benevolent: he intends to benefit from the future deaths of these monsters, believing the rewards will be greater if they die indirectly because of his actions rather than by his own hand.
• The chapter ends with context about Jiang Ming’s recent conflict with the Ji Family. After gambling on stones at the Ji Family Market and earning three thousand jin of Source, he attracted the attention of corrupt members of the Ji Family.

Character Developments

• Duan De is portrayed as an obsessive, fearless, and highly skilled grave robber. His mastery of feng shui allows him to survive dangerous tomb formations, while his greed and excitement over treasure override concern for his safety.
• Jiang Ming becomes increasingly resourceful and experimental. Rather than merely cultivating, he develops the Wine Immortal Spell into a method for producing powerful medicinal wine from captured creatures and rare materials.
• Jiang Ming also shows a manipulative and opportunistic side. He forms relationships with monsters while simultaneously considering how their eventual deaths might benefit him.
• The Dragon-Head Great Saint undergoes a visible transformation after Jiang Ming’s guidance. Once an ugly and troublesome fathead fish, it becomes a majestic Fish-Dragon-like creature and develops genuine admiration and gratitude toward Jiang Ming.
• Jiang Ming’s internal conflicting thoughts continue to surface. One voice urges him to embrace the cultivation world’s law of killing and treasure-seizing, while another remains silent and hostile, reflecting the psychological instability connected to his demonic-deviation trial.

Significant Themes

• Greed and risk in cultivation: Duan De’s tomb-robbing demonstrates that treasure hunting is extremely dangerous, but cultivators willingly accept the risk because greater danger often promises greater rewards.
• Transformation through guidance: The Dragon-Head Great Saint’s dramatic improvement shows how powerful instruction and Dao insight can reshape both appearance and ability.
• Moral ambiguity: Jiang Ming helps and teaches the fish monster, yet also views the monster and its sworn brothers as potential sources of rewards. Altruism and exploitation coexist in his actions.
• Identity and reincarnation: Jiang Ming’s multiple internal selves and his awareness of past and present lives reinforce the chapter’s broader concern with memory, identity, and the consequences of repeated existences.
• The ancient and dangerous world: The Primordial Ruins, the remnants of the Eastern Wasteland Demon Court, and the Reincarnation Sea emphasize the immense history and hidden dangers of the Emperor-Burial Star.
• Power, corruption, and inherited status: The Ji Family’s connection to the Void Great Emperor contrasts with the corruption of some peripheral descendants, suggesting that prestigious bloodlines do not guarantee virtue.

Important Character Interactions

• Duan De and the tomb’s formations: His struggle with the traps highlights both his expertise and his reckless enthusiasm.
• Jiang Ming observing Duan De: Jiang Ming treats the grave robber’s misfortune humorously, recording it rather than helping or sabotaging him.
• Jiang Ming and the Dragon-Head Great Saint: Their relationship begins with Jiang Ming defeating the fish monster, but develops into a strange friendship after Jiang Ming spares it and teaches it Dao principles.
• Jiang Ming and the future Seven Saints: Jiang Ming prepares to join the fish monster and its five sworn brothers, although his friendship is partly motivated by the rewards he expects to gain from their future fate.
• Jiang Ming and the Ji Family: His profitable gambling at the Ji Family Market draws the attention of corrupt Ji Family members, setting up a likely conflict in the next section.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• Jiang Ming, using his weakened Fiery Golden Eyes, attracts attention while investigating sources below the Divine Source realm.
• He becomes the sworn seventh brother of six powerful demons who control roughly thirty thousand li of the Ji River. They style themselves the Seven Saints/Demon Kings of the Demon Race, imitating the grand titles and lifestyles of human cultivators.
• The six demons include:
  • A mutated Fish-Dragon with the weakest strength among them
  • An ancient

Black Tortoise

• A

White Qiu Dragon

• An

Alligator Dragon King

• A giant lobster with Dragon Clan bloodline
• A massive toad demon
• The Fish-Dragon has undergone a bloodline transformation with help from the Water Ape Great Saint, becoming more dragon-like and stronger, yet it remains completely submissive to Jiang Ming.
• Jiang Ming travels on the Fish-Dragon’s back to meet the Black Tortoise and then the other demon kings.
• The demons plan to attack a powerful Golden Crab, who seized territory after breaking through to the Four Extremes Secret Realm with a Daoheart Lotus.
• The Lobster King reveals that he has recently broken through to the Four Extremes Secret Realm, giving the group confidence that they can defeat the Golden Crab.
• The attack is also intended as a welcoming feast for Jiang Ming and a demonstration of the group’s strength.
• Jiang Ming agrees to participate while secretly viewing the demons as potential food, especially the Fish-Dragon, who jokingly suggests they may steam and eat the Golden Crab.
• The group proudly declares itself the “Seven Saints of the Demon Race,” hoping to become famous throughout the Eastern Wasteland and Southern Region.

Character Developments

• Jiang Ming: Adopts the identity of the Water Ape Great Saint, or Red-Buttock Divine Ape, using the Seventy-Two Transformations. His abilities include Fiery Golden Eyes, Three Heads and Six Arms, control of water and wind, and insight into Yin and Yang. He remains calm, powerful, and quietly amused by the demons’ arrogance.
• Fish-Dragon Sixth Brother: Gains a stronger, more attractive Fish-Dragon bloodline but remains far weaker than Jiang Ming. He is enthusiastic about the alliance and appears friendly, though his eagerness to eat enemies reveals a particularly ruthless nature.
• Black Tortoise: Presented as ancient, vicious, and extremely difficult to kill. Its shell contains Dao-like patterns and provides formidable defensive power despite its relatively small size.
• Lobster King: Established as the leader of the demon alliance. His recent breakthrough to the Four Extremes Secret Realm strengthens his authority and gives the group the confidence to attack the Golden Crab.
• Other Demon Kings: The Alligator Dragon is cold and dismissive, the Toad and White Qiu Dragon are more courteous, and all are impressed or uneasy around Jiang Ming’s concealed power.

Significant Themes

• Imitation and ambition: The demons copy human cultivators by adopting titles such as “Demon Kings,” forming alliances, swearing brotherhood, and seeking fame.
• Strength and hierarchy: Power determines status within the group. Even though Jiang Ming is nominally the seventh brother, his actual strength makes the older demons wary.
• Hidden identity and deception: Jiang Ming disguises himself as a Water Ape and conceals his true abilities while allowing the demons to speculate about his bloodline.
• Comedic arrogance: The demons’ grand self-image contrasts with their lack of refinement, creating humor. Jiang Ming’s declaration that they will become famous is especially shameless, even by their standards.
• Predator mentality: The demons view powerful creatures as food and territory as something to seize, while Jiang Ming privately considers doing the same to them.

Character Interactions

• The Fish-Dragon warmly supports Jiang Ming’s inclusion and praises his strength, despite having previously been defeated effortlessly by him.
• The Black Tortoise proposes conquering the Golden Crab’s territory for Jiang Ming, both to welcome him and to connect the demons’ domains.
• The Lobster King cautiously evaluates Jiang Ming but accepts him because his aura suggests immense hidden power.
• The demons treat one another as brothers, yet their behavior remains competitive, suspicious, and predatory.
• Jiang Ming outwardly cooperates with the group while internally mocking their titles and contemplating eating the Fish-Dragon, creating a sharp contrast between his calm exterior and ruthless thoughts.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• The seven water demons travel upstream to confront the Golden Crab King, who controls the fertile upper reaches of the Ji River and has oppressed them for years.
• Their attack also serves as a test for the newly joined Seventh Brother, the Water Ape, to determine both his strength and his sincerity toward the sworn-brother alliance.
• At the same time, three powerful Four Extremes Secret Realm cultivators from the Ji Family Market track Jiang Ming, intending to kill him under the false justification of “enforcing justice.” Their real motive is revenge because Jiang Ming won three thousand jin of Pure Source from the Ji Family’s Stone Gambling Workshop.
• The Golden Crab reveals itself as a Golden Kui Crab possessing a trace of Kui Ox bloodline. Through his Fiery Golden Eyes, Jiang Ming detects the creature’s bloodline origin and an existing internal weakness.
• The Crab King launches eight devastating golden lightning spears. The six older demon kings struggle desperately to defend themselves, but their innate techniques are completely overwhelmed. The Scarlet Flame Lobster is badly injured.
• Jiang Ming transforms into a gigantic three-headed, six-armed Zhu Yan and destroys the lightning attack with his bare hands, rescuing the other demons.
• Using his Fiery Golden Eyes, Jiang Ming strikes the Crab King’s hidden injury, pierces its body, annihilates its consciousness, and kills it instantly.
• When the Crab King’s collapsing water pillar threatens to cause a catastrophic flood, Jiang Ming uses the Law of Heaven and Earth to contain the water and return it safely to the Ji River.

Character Developments

• Jiang Ming/Seventh Brother: Demonstrates overwhelming power, keen perception, mastery of multiple innate abilities, and remarkable control over his strength. His effortless victory proves that his bloodline and cultivation far exceed those of the other demons.
• Scarlet Flame Lobster: Initially acts as the group’s leader and challenges the Crab King, but is severely injured and forced to rely on Jiang Ming. He sincerely acknowledges Jiang Ming’s superiority and offers to surrender the position of Big Brother.
• The other six demon kings: Their fear and desperation during the battle turn into complete respect and loyalty after Jiang Ming saves them and defeats the Crab King. They formally accept him as their true sworn brother.
• Golden Kui Crab: Revealed to possess only a weak, impure trace of Kui Ox bloodline. Despite its intimidating power, it is completely outmatched by Jiang Ming and dies almost immediately once its weakness is exposed.
• Ji Family cultivators: Their pursuit establishes a new external threat. They are portrayed as arrogant and malicious, disguising personal resentment as righteous justice.

Significant Themes

• Strength as the basis of loyalty: Jiang Ming earns genuine brotherhood not through promises but by protecting the others and accomplishing what they could not.
• Bloodline purity and inherited power: The chapter emphasizes the vast difference between a powerful, authentic bloodline and a diluted imitation.
• False justice and hypocrisy: The Ji Family’s accusations against Jiang Ming are shown to be fabricated excuses for retaliation and greed.
• Leadership and rightful authority: The Scarlet Flame Lobster’s willingness to yield leadership reflects a shift from nominal seniority to authority based on true ability and character.
• Control accompanying power: Jiang Ming does not merely destroy the Crab King; he also prevents the resulting flood, demonstrating restraint and responsibility.

Character Interactions

• The six demon kings depend on one another while confronting the Crab King, but their attacks prove ineffective.
• The Scarlet Flame Lobster directly appeals to Jiang Ming, promising to relinquish leadership if he kills the Crab King.
• Jiang Ming responds not with words but with decisive action, killing the Crab King immediately after the offer.
• After witnessing his strength and compassion, the six demons kneel and call him “Big Brother,” fully accepting him as their leader.
• Meanwhile, the Ji Family’s pursuit of Jiang Ming creates suspense for the next conflict, contrasting the demons’ newfound loyalty with the family’s hostile intentions.

Chapter Summary: “Lightning Stone Cauldron”

1. Key Plot Points and Events

• After killing the Golden Kui Crab, Jiang Ming returns to his normal three-meter form and prepares for the arrival of the Ji Family pursuers.
• The system rewards him with ten grains of Divine Source, an extremely precious cultivation resource containing the essence of heaven and earth. Jiang Ming stores them in his Sea of Bitterness rather than refining them immediately.
• He stores the Golden Kui Crab’s corpse in his Purple Copper Gourd, intending to use it later for food or wine.
• Three Ji Family cultivators arrive above the Ji River, pursuing Jiang Ming over the previously offered three thousand jin of Pure Source.
• Jiang Ming orders his six sworn water-demon brothers to attack. The Ji Family leader, a Four Extremes cultivator skilled in the Heaven-Cutting Finger, effortlessly kills the Fish-Dragon, Silver Old Alligator, and Black Tortoise.
• Their deaths trigger system rewards:
  • Fish-Dragon: a 50,000-year Medicine King, Enlightenment Lotus
  • Silver Old Alligator: one thousand jin of Pure Source
  • Black Tortoise: the

King-tier divine weapon, Lightning Stone Cauldron

• Jiang Ming collects the remains of the three demons and confronts the Ji Family leader, Ji Xi.
• Using Law of Heaven and Earth, Jiang Ming grows into a hundred-meter giant and destroys the Heaven-Cutting Finger before crushing Ji Xi with a single palm. He receives another ten grains of Divine Source.
• The surviving Ji Family cultivators use the Great Void Technique and Void Great Handprint, disappearing into the Void. However, their attack kills Jiang Ming’s remaining three demon allies—Scarlet Flame Lobster, Old White Chi, and Jade Toad/Frog.
• The chapter ends by explaining that the Ji Family trio could have been extremely difficult to defeat had they coordinated properly. Ji Xi’s arrogance and carelessness allowed Jiang Ming to kill him immediately.

2. Character Developments

• Jiang Ming becomes increasingly confident and ruthless. He recognizes the value of the system’s rewards and has no remorse over the deaths of the demon kings, viewing them as insincere, long-lived monsters rather than true brothers.
• His growing strength is emphasized through his effortless destruction of a powerful Ji Family expert and his ability to withstand or overpower the family’s secret techniques.
• Jiang Ming also shows practical foresight by preserving valuable corpses and delaying the refinement of his Divine Source until a more suitable moment.
• The water demons’ supposed brotherhood is exposed as shallow. They follow Jiang Ming mainly out of fear and self-preservation, while Jiang Ming considers them expendable.
• The Ji Family cultivators are portrayed as powerful but overconfident. Their superior techniques could have made them nearly untouchable, but poor coordination leads to Ji Xi’s instant death.

3. Significant Themes

• Power and survival: Alliances are based on strength and fear rather than genuine loyalty.
• The value of resources: Divine Source, Medicine Kings, Pure Source, and divine weapons represent enormous advantages in cultivation and drive both conflict and ambition.
• Consequences of arrogance: Ji Xi’s underestimation of Jiang Ming causes his rapid defeat, despite his mastery of the Ji Family’s ultimate technique.
• Transactional relationships: The system treats deaths and sworn bonds as mechanisms for rewards, while Jiang Ming views his “brothers” strategically rather than emotionally.
• Overwhelming force versus technique: The Ji Family relies on refined Void and finger techniques, whereas Jiang Ming answers with overwhelming physical power and supernatural transformation.

4. Character Interactions

• Jiang Ming commands the six water demons to attack the Ji Family, forcing them to prove their loyalty.
• The Ji Family leader dismisses the demons and kills three of them with the Heaven-Cutting Finger.
• Jiang Ming confronts Ji Xi directly, accusing him of killing his “brothers” and crushing him in retaliation.
• The remaining demons cooperate with Jiang Ming against the Ji Family, but the Ji Family’s Void techniques turn the battle around and kill them.
• The chapter highlights the contrast between Jiang Ming’s dominant leadership and the demons’ fear-driven obedience, as well as the Ji Family cultivators’ initially coordinated but ultimately flawed teamwork.

Chapter Summary: Red Lotus Karmic Fire

Key Plot Points and Events

• Jiang Ming collects the remains of the six evil demons he has killed, intending to refine their flesh and blood into medicinal wine using the Purple Copper Gourd and Wine Immortal Spell.
• The system rewards him for killing several of his sworn “brothers”—including Jade Toad, Old White Chi, and Scarlet Flame Lobster—with rare treasures such as a Three-Yin Treasure Lotus, Divine Source, and Nine Heavens Scarlet Jade King.
• Two surviving Ji Family deputy managers ambush Jiang Ming with the Void Great Handprint. Jiang responds by transforming into his Three Heads and Six Arms form and using Law of Heaven and Earth.
• His Fiery Golden Eyes expose the hidden enemies, and his gigantic transformed body crushes both Ji Family cultivators. Their defensive treasures, including a silver shield and Bagua Mirror, are destroyed.
• Jiang searches the enemies’ possessions, gaining Pure Source, formation flags, a Moonlight Fruit, and most importantly, a seed of Red Lotus Karmic Fire.
• The fire is absorbed by his Twelfth-Grade Lotus Dao Platform, causing a thirteenth blood-red petal to appear and granting him a new ability to perceive karma, calamity, ominous auras, and the karmic burdens attached to people’s Fate Patterns.
• Jiang learns that Red Lotus Karmic Fire harms sinners according to the severity of their karmic debts but cannot hurt genuinely virtuous people. He uses it to burn the corpses, erase tracking marks, and destroy the formation flags, eliminating all evidence and hidden dangers.
• He explores the underwater cave dwellings of the dead demons. Although some spirit herbs have been consumed, Jiang finds several hidden stores, guarded demonic underlings, refining materials, and five valuable spirit herbs.
• The greatest discovery is Silver Tuo’s secretly cultivated two-thousand-year-old Dragon-Snake Orchid, which had been nourished with dragon-infused blood to awaken its Dragon Clan lineage.
• Jiang decides to use Silver Tuo’s hidden cave as a temporary cultivation site and prepare for his breakthrough to the Golden Core Stage.
• Before cultivating, he upgrades his Life-Bound Sword with Nine Heavens Scarlet Jade King. The sword becomes a supreme-grade magic treasure and is close to evolving into a Spirit Treasure once Jiang reaches the Golden Core Stage.

Character Developments

• Jiang Ming grows more confident and ruthless in dealing with enemies. He no longer hesitates to kill those who pursue him and believes anyone seeking his life must be prepared to die.
• His combat strength reaches at least the level of the Five Prohibitions when using his transformations, allowing him to overwhelm Four Extremes cultivators with ease.
• The Red Lotus Karmic Fire gives Jiang a deeper understanding of his own dangerous Fate Pattern. He realizes that his increasing Fortune is tied to causing deaths and that his presence may bring calamity to others.
• Despite this ominous realization, Jiang remains practical and methodical, removing every possible trace of his actions before beginning his next cultivation phase.
• His Life-Bound Sword advances dramatically, bringing him closer to possessing a Spirit Treasure at the Golden Core Stage—far earlier than ordinary cultivators could achieve.

Significant Themes

• Karma and morality: The Red Lotus Karmic Fire embodies the principle that evil deeds create tangible karmic consequences. The demons’ sins make them especially vulnerable, while virtuous people would remain unharmed.
• Power and survival: Jiang Ming adopts the rule that overwhelming strength defeats all techniques. His enemies’ schemes and treasures prove useless against his superior physical and transformed power.
• Cause and consequence: Jiang’s Fate Pattern grants Fortune through death, but this power also marks him as an ominous, potentially catastrophic figure.
• Preparation and resourcefulness: Jiang turns his enemies, their treasures, their hidden resources, and even their corpses into materials for cultivation and advancement.
• Rapid advancement versus conventional limits: His unique inheritance and Life-Bound Sword allow him to wield treasures normally associated with much higher realms.

Character Interactions

• Jiang Ming and the Ji Family: The two Ji Family deputy managers attempt to assassinate him through concealment and coordinated attacks, but Jiang exposes and kills them effortlessly.
• Jiang Ming and the six demons: Though they had been treated as sworn brothers, Jiang regards them as hypocritical criminals. After killing them, he loots their cave dwellings and converts their remains and followers into resources.
• Jiang Ming and Silver Tuo: Silver Tuo’s ambition to awaken his dragon bloodline indirectly benefits Jiang when Jiang discovers and takes the secretly cultivated Dragon-Snake Orchid.
• Jiang Ming and his allies: His thoughts turn toward Hua Yunfei, Ji Haoyue, and Yan Ruyu, who are expected to reach the Four Extremes Secret Realm soon. Their progress motivates Jiang to advance quickly so he will not fall behind.

Chapter Summary: “Purple-Blood Tyrant Body”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Jiang Ming prepares for a major breakthrough inside a stalactite cave. To ensure his safety, he takes eighteen high-grade formation flags obtained from the Ji Family and re-refines them.
• Using his Golden Cauldron Furnace transformation, he upgrades the flags and evolves the Vast-Sky Formation into the more powerful Inverted Yin-Yang Vast-Sky Formation.
• After five days of refinement, he plants the eighteen flags around the cave. The resulting formation conceals the cave, reverses Yin-Yang principles, and isolates the area from outside detection.
• Jiang Ming spends two hours restoring his vital energy, essence, and spirit before beginning his breakthrough. His divine sense has already expanded to roughly fifty thousand meters at the Great Perfection of Foundation Establishment.
• During meditation, he reflects briefly on his three lives: his original life on Earth, his second life as his master’s adopted son, and his third life involving cultivation, marriage, and a daughter. He abandons the reflection, realizing it is unnecessary for this breakthrough.
• His breakthrough begins after he activates four thousand catties of Pure Source. The Source transforms into immense vital energy, nourishing his body and causing his purple-golden Dao Sea to surge violently.
• The Thirteen-Petaled Lotus Dao Platform releases tremendous power while the Dao Sea expands, effectively opening and strengthening his dantian Sea of Bitterness.
• His twelve divine forms and four major anomalies stabilize and protect the dantian during the breakthrough.
• The breakthrough also awakens part of the Heavenly Tyrant Body’s special constitution: the Purple-Blood Tyrant Body, comparable to the Desolate Ancient Sacred Body’s Indestructible Golden Body.

Character Development

• Jiang Ming demonstrates increasing caution and strategic maturity by reinforcing his defensive formation before entering seclusion.
• His deep cultivation experience allows him to recognize that conventional meditation and mental preparation are unnecessary for him; his accumulated memories and discipline make the process instinctive.
• The memories of his three lives reveal emotional depth, especially his bonds with his master, former family, and confidante, though he deliberately suppresses these distractions to focus on cultivation.
• His foundation is shown to be extraordinarily powerful. The purple-golden Dao Sea, Thirteen-Petaled Lotus Dao Platform, twelve divine forms, and four anomalies make his breakthrough far more impressive than an ordinary advancement.
• The awakening of the Purple-Blood Tyrant Body marks a major enhancement to his physical potential and likely future combat strength.

Significant Themes

• Preparation and self-reliance: Jiang Ming combines formations, craftsmanship, resources, and personal cultivation to create a secure breakthrough environment.
• The weight of past lives: His memories demonstrate the continuity of his identity across multiple lifetimes, while also showing his ability to set aside emotion for the sake of advancement.
• Transformation and transcendence: The expansion of the Dao Sea and awakening of the Tyrant Body symbolize Jiang Ming’s evolution beyond ordinary cultivators.
• Balance between body and cultivation: The chapter emphasizes that his progress is not limited to spiritual energy; his physical constitution is also evolving into a powerful combat body.
• Grand cosmic imagery: The divine anomalies—such as the Grass Blade Slashing the Stars, Dragon-Phoenix Diagram, Demon Ape Ravaging Heaven, and Heaven-Opening Green Willow—represent supreme destructive, protective, and creative forces within his cultivation path.

Character Interactions

• There are no present-time interactions with other characters in the chapter.
• Jiang Ming’s reflections mention important relationships from his previous lives:
  • His master rescued him as an infant and raised him as an adopted son.
  • In another life, he formed a bond with a talented woman, married her, and had a daughter.
• These remembered relationships contrast with Jiang Ming’s current solitary cultivation and emphasize the emotional history behind his otherwise focused and detached personality.

Summary of “Crimson Palace Pass”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Jiang Ming undergoes a major breakthrough into the Golden Core Stage while secluded in a cave. Purple Qi, Dao resonance, and Zen chants accompany the transformation of his four embryonic divine forms into fully realized divine forms.
• The Golden Core breakthrough proceeds through three major trials:
  1. Essence Origin Pass: Jiang Ming’s Heavenly Tyrant Body easily withstands the test. His body is strengthened by the circulation of dense purple Qi, and his physical durability surpasses cultivators at the fourth stage of the Four Extremes Secret Realm.
  2. Crimson Palace Pass: His middle dantian, or Crimson Palace, fully opens. Human essence and Qi merge, while his Dao embryo gradually takes the form of a golden core.
  3. Dao and Longevity Pass: Jiang Ming’s divine sense enters the golden core, giving it spiritual vitality and completing its formation.
• During the breakthrough, the Great Freedom Sword Scripture evolves into the Great Freedom Dao Scripture after incorporating the principles of gods and demons.
• A powerful God-Demon Dao Diagram manifests around Jiang Ming, combining brilliant golden divinity with profound black demonic force. It protects him from the illusions and intrusive memories that arise during the final breakthrough.
• Thirty strands of Divine Source are absorbed into the God-Demon Golden Core, strengthening and stabilizing it.
• By the end of the process, Jiang Ming’s physical body breaks through to a level comparable to the Dragon Transformation Secret Realm, while his divine sense expands from one hundred li to two hundred li.

Character Development

• Jiang Ming advances from the Foundation Establishment level into the Golden Core Stage, marking a major increase in cultivation and potential.
• His Heavenly Tyrant Body develops further, revealing that his physical strength is not yet at its limit. He realizes that combining it with the Shrouding Method in the future could produce an even greater transformation.
• His cultivation increasingly becomes uniquely his own. Previously, part of his physical power came from borrowing another prodigy’s talent through the Seventy-Two Transformations, but this breakthrough represents genuine personal growth.
• Jiang Ming’s Dao heart becomes more stable. Memories, past-life influences, and Dao-created illusions can no longer seriously disturb him.
• His divine sense improves dramatically, benefiting from the wisdom accumulated over three lifetimes and from the protective reaction of his dormant past-life soul origin.

Significant Themes

• Integration of opposites: The Great Freedom Dao Scripture teaches that gods and demons are two aspects of the same Dao. Divinity contains demonic potential, while demons contain traces of divinity.
• Self-mastery and spiritual stability: Jiang Ming’s ability to overcome illusions and memories demonstrates the strengthening of his Dao heart and inner independence.
• Transformation through cultivation: The breakthrough affects not only Jiang Ming’s energy but also his body, soul, divine sense, and Dao foundation.
• Borrowed power versus true growth: The chapter contrasts abilities obtained through borrowed talents with strength that Jiang Ming develops intrinsically.
• Unity with the Dao: The God-Demon Dao Diagram symbolizes Jiang Ming’s increasingly profound connection with cosmic principles, suggesting that he is becoming an entity capable of coexisting with the Great Dao.

Character Interactions

• There are no direct interactions with other characters in this chapter. The primary “conflict” is internal: Jiang Ming contends with the three Golden Core trials, disruptive memories, and illusions generated by the Great Dao.
• His relationship with his past-life self is indirectly important. The accumulated wisdom and dormant soul origin of his previous life continue to influence and protect him, especially against soul attacks and during moments of spiritual danger.

Chapter Summary

1. Key Plot Points and Events

• After twenty days of refinement, Jiang Ming completes the transformation of his Perfect Golden Core into a Nine-Aperture Divine-Demon Dao Pill.
• Auspicious phenomena accompany the breakthrough: heavenly music, golden lotuses, rainbows, purple qi stretching for hundreds of li, and manifestations of dragons, phoenixes, Kun Peng, Skyhorned Ants, and other divine beasts.
• The God-Devil Dao Diagram merges into Jiang Ming’s dantian, while his entire True Essence Sea is absorbed into the Golden Core. Nine apertures form on the core, allowing it to breathe in the qi of heaven and earth.
• The Dao Pill resonates with Jiang Ming’s Myriad Phenomena Dao Foundation, harmonizing yin and yang, the five elements, time and space, life and death, wind and lightning, and light and darkness.
• His Life-Bound Sword consumes more than half of the Nine Heavens Scarlet Jade King, undergoes repeated refinement, and advances directly to a Lower-Grade Mid-Tier Spirit Treasure.
• Jiang Ming emerges from the breakthrough vastly stronger, estimating that his current Golden Core self could suppress ten former versions of himself.
• Immediately afterward, a massive tribulation of purple lightning descends, destroying the underground cave and tearing apart the surrounding Void.
• Rather than suffering, Jiang Ming uses his Life-Bound Sword, humanoid lightning, and Scarlet Serpent Lightning to neutralize and absorb the tribulation. He even takes out his Purple Copper Gourd to collect lightning for brewing wine and refining the artifact.
• He finally uses Demon Devours Heaven and Earth to swallow lightning transformed into a gentle, drinkable form by the Scarlet Serpent Lightning.

2. Character Developments

• Jiang Ming completes a major cultivation breakthrough, reaching the Golden Core Stage, equated here with the Four Extremes Secret Realm.
• His physique, spirit, and aura are fundamentally transformed. He now possesses an immortal, mysterious, and detached presence, with galaxies, sun, and moon seemingly reflected in his eyes.
• His confidence and composure increase. Even during a destructive heavenly tribulation, he remains calm and treats the lightning as beneficial body tempering.
• Jiang Ming’s resourcefulness and eccentric personality become more apparent: he turns the tribulation into an opportunity to refine his sword, improve his gourd, brew wine, and strengthen himself.
• His Life-Bound Sword evolves into a powerful spirit treasure and becomes an even more dependable partner in combat and cultivation.

3. Significant Themes

• Sublimation and rebirth: Jiang Ming’s Golden Core, body, spirit, and sword all undergo successive transformations, emphasizing cultivation as a total renewal of existence.
• Harmony of opposites: The Divine-Demon Dao Pill unites gold and black, divinity and demonic power, yin and yang, and multiple opposing cosmic principles.
• Mastery over tribulation: The heavenly lightning, normally a deadly obstacle, is rendered harmless and converted into a source of nourishment and refinement.
• Dao as living creation: The Golden Core is portrayed as an embryo of the Dao, breathing, pulsing, and generating complex patterns and cosmic resonance.
• Power mixed with irreverence: Jiang Ming’s transcendent breakthrough is undercut by his casual, almost playful attitude toward the tribulation and his desire to turn lightning into wine.
• Comparison between cultivation systems and characters: The chapter humorously contrasts Jiang Ming’s comfortable breakthrough with Ye Fan’s notoriously painful tribulations.

4. Character Interactions

• Jiang Ming interacts primarily with his own cultivation manifestations and treasures:
  • The God-Devil Dao Diagram merges with his Golden Core.
  • The Myriad Phenomena Dao Foundation resonates with the Nine-Aperture Dao Pill.
  • The Life-Bound Sword assists him in resisting the lightning and advances in rank.
  • The Scarlet Serpent Lightning protects him by converting destructive thunder into gentle energy.
  • The Purple Copper Gourd is used to absorb lightning and refine itself.
• There are no direct conversations with other characters in this chapter. Jiang Ming briefly reflects on Ye Fan, imagining his envy of Jiang Ming’s painless lightning tribulation, and nostalgically mentions the eccentric “Wine Sword Immortal” and the abnormal geniuses of Shushan.